Paul Horcher

Re “Brown Blocks GOP Assembly Takeover as 1 Republican Bolts,” Dec. 6:

I was a disappointed Republican when Diamond Bar Assemblyman Paul Horcher bolted our party and voted to reelect Willie Brown as Speaker. My sadness disappeared when I read the Rev. Louis Sheldon’s implied murder threat against Horcher. I now congratulate Horcher for standing up to the right-wing radical fringe of my political party. Willie Brown is less a threat to our society than is Sheldon’s Christian Traditional Values Coalition.

JAMES ZIEGLER

San Diego

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* As a Republican I am outraged that Horcher supported Willie Brown for control of the Assembly. He has betrayed his constituents and betrayed all Californians who want Brown out of office for a better California.

ANN CARTER

Santa Ana

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* I am outraged that Horcher abandoned the Republican Party by declaring after the election that he is now an independent and voting for Brown as Speaker. Horcher betrayed Diamond Bar and showed cowardice.

If he felt so strongly that the Republicans in the Assembly were leaning too far to the right, he should have run as an independent in the election. He did not because he would have lost.

I am supporting a recall effort against him.

CHRIS KNOX

Diamond Bar

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* What Horcher did in the Assembly was a heroic act. He risked his political life to stand up to the arrogant, ultra-right wing of his party. In the cookie-cutter world of California politics, an individual act of heroism like his is very rare indeed. He was a David to many Goliaths.

ROB ROBINSON

La Mirada